Professor Kenneth W. Stein’s single-sentence dismissal of Jimmy Carter’s book — “replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments” — has become perhaps the most widely-quoted review of Carter’s appalling volume. But the single-paragraph review in the December 31 issue of National Review ranks close behind as the most succinct summary of the author’s approach:
[Carter’s] signal achievement as president was to broker peace between
Israel and; he has spent the rest of his life since trying to pull the same rabbit out of every hat. Where Egypt and the Palestinians are concerned, he displays the structural anti-Semitism of the professional peacemaker. If one’s goal is progress toward peace, and if the Palestinians make no real concessions, then progress can come only from Israel — which becomes the object of the peacemaker’s wrath whenever it balks. Now Carter, who as an election observer has certified grotesquely corrupt Palestinian contests, compares Israel to the South African apartheid state. Our 39th president has gone from being a misguided idealist to being an ugly crank. Israel
Kenneth Stein will be speaking publicly about Carter’s book on January 11, 2007 at
The Carter Book Controversy: Origins and Impact
Dr. Kenneth W. Stein,Emory University Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Political Science and Israeli Studies
January 11, 2007 • 7:30 p.m.
10400 Wilshire Blvd.Sinai Temple
Los Angeles Following the publication of Jimmy Carter’s recent book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," Emory University Professor, Dr. Kenneth W. Stein, resigned from his position as Middle East Fellow of the
, a position he had held since 1983. For a decade they worked closely on Middle Eastern issues. In his resignation letter to Carter, Stein wrote that he found the book "replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments." Carter Center Stein’s scholarly articles have focused on American foreign policy, European views of the Middle East, the origins of modern
Israel , Palestinian social and political history, the Arab-Israeli negotiating process,and the Arab world, and modern Arab politics. Israel Admission Free. For reservations, please contact Program Director Anita Schmidt at (310) 481-3243.
Stein’s scholarly journal writings include "The Bush Doctrine," "The Study of Middle Eastern History in the United States," "Palestine’s Rural Economy," "The Jewish National Fund: Land Purchase Methods and Priorities," "The Palestinian Refugee Problem," "The PLO After Beirut," "After Arafat, What?" and "Europe and the
Previously on JCI:
Carter’s Maps: Worse Than Plagiarism